A firewall to use with windows xp?
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Soldato
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Give either Sygate, Kerio or Zone Alarm a try.
Soldato
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I was using ZA Pro until two days ago. A flatmate of mine downloaded Kerio, probably because its free. 
It looks pretty good, Kerio that is, and more intuitive I feel compared to ZA Pro. You get a free 30 day trial of the full version before it reverts to its free status after that. I decided to buy the full version for £10.10 because some of the paid for features will be useful to me. The exchange rate is also quite good at the moment.
When I first installed Kerio I noticed a substantial drop in memory usage in XP. So having used ZA Pro and Kerio, I'd go for Kerio now. Kerio doesn't have the stigma of ZA Pro does regarding the intereference with other programs.
Or you could get a hardware firewall instead of running a software program. I have a Netgear DG834PN router at home and it is brilliant.
It looks pretty good, Kerio that is, and more intuitive I feel compared to ZA Pro. You get a free 30 day trial of the full version before it reverts to its free status after that. I decided to buy the full version for £10.10 because some of the paid for features will be useful to me. The exchange rate is also quite good at the moment.
When I first installed Kerio I noticed a substantial drop in memory usage in XP. So having used ZA Pro and Kerio, I'd go for Kerio now. Kerio doesn't have the stigma of ZA Pro does regarding the intereference with other programs.
Or you could get a hardware firewall instead of running a software program. I have a Netgear DG834PN router at home and it is brilliant.
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Yep that is pretty much what they are saying. A decent AV such as NOD32 or AVG/Avast/Antivir if you want a free AV and a router with the Windows built-in firewall should be OK. That and common sense on the net as well as some anti-spyware utils such as Ad-aware/Spybot/AVG Anti-Spyware and you should be pretty safe.eveyuk said:
I have a hardware router at home but at Uni I have NOD32, Sunbelt Kerio and Ad-aware and Spybot running to keep my PC safe.
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Clarkey said:
Agreed, always handy if its behind a nat enabled device as well.
eveyuk said:
Can i ask how you came by this factual piece of evidence?
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Curiosityx said:
Ouch, at the time it was released reviews said it wasn't very good. The reviews recomended that we still use a "proper" firewall. I forget which reviews I read, my memory is pickled by too much bombardier.
If I knew what I was on about I wouldn't be asking advice!
What is meant by "nat enabled"? Ta
Soldato
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Appologies im just puzzled when comments are made without evidence to support said facts.
But yes the updated version of the Windows Firewall provided in SP2 of Windows Xp is a reliable product for a large percentage of users.
NAT or (network address translation) allows multiple internal or private IP addresses (Hosts) use of a single external or public IP address.
For example an LAN at home with 4 computers connected to a NAT enabled router, all of them have different internal addresses but only one avaliable public address as see below.
No matter which Hosts makes a request to an external server the Router or default gateway as it is sometimes refered too "Translates" the internal address too the single outside address a result of this is that all traffic comming from this internal network is labled with the same external address.
But yes the updated version of the Windows Firewall provided in SP2 of Windows Xp is a reliable product for a large percentage of users.
NAT or (network address translation) allows multiple internal or private IP addresses (Hosts) use of a single external or public IP address.
For example an LAN at home with 4 computers connected to a NAT enabled router, all of them have different internal addresses but only one avaliable public address as see below.
No matter which Hosts makes a request to an external server the Router or default gateway as it is sometimes refered too "Translates" the internal address too the single outside address a result of this is that all traffic comming from this internal network is labled with the same external address.
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Clear as mud.
http://www.linksys.com/servlet/Sate...ite=US&pagename=Linksys/Common/VisitorWrapper
This is my router.
http://www.linksys.com/servlet/Sate...ite=US&pagename=Linksys/Common/VisitorWrapper
This is my router.
basically, if anyone tries to 'attack' your pc, it'll just hit the router and stop there (when you're browsing the internet, they'll only see your router's ip)
an IP is like a telephone number, so if they want to send things to your pc, they'll send it to your IP (number), but the router will be unaffected by attacks, wheras your pc wouldn't be
so a router is like having a crash test dummy in the way that takes the hits for you and you get zero problems..
^pretty simplistic way of putting it, but thats how it works..
its also a good way of adding extra pc's to your home's internet and sharing the internet with ease, the router will dialup your adsl provider and make the connection, then you connect to the router using a normal ethernet/lan cable so you dont need any software on your pc to connect to the internet, the router does the work..
once you've set your router up (simple guides come with them) you just connect a lan cable up and the internet will just work
-i'd ditch mcaffe and just use the xpfirewall, get a trial of nod32 (antivirus) if you like it then get it, its got real good performance, also windows defender is a good tool (antispyware) and is free.. (go into options and disable real-time scanning tho, or it'll affect your pc speed a bit.. just set weekly scans)
an IP is like a telephone number, so if they want to send things to your pc, they'll send it to your IP (number), but the router will be unaffected by attacks, wheras your pc wouldn't be
so a router is like having a crash test dummy in the way that takes the hits for you and you get zero problems..
^pretty simplistic way of putting it, but thats how it works..
its also a good way of adding extra pc's to your home's internet and sharing the internet with ease, the router will dialup your adsl provider and make the connection, then you connect to the router using a normal ethernet/lan cable so you dont need any software on your pc to connect to the internet, the router does the work..
once you've set your router up (simple guides come with them) you just connect a lan cable up and the internet will just work
-i'd ditch mcaffe and just use the xpfirewall, get a trial of nod32 (antivirus) if you like it then get it, its got real good performance, also windows defender is a good tool (antispyware) and is free.. (go into options and disable real-time scanning tho, or it'll affect your pc speed a bit.. just set weekly scans)
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Yup. I cried like a little boy when I got my Netgear DG834PN and plugged my PC in and was on the Internet in seconds. It was so much easier than my Linksys router which was just hell to setup.bledd. said: